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First Impressions: Monday edition featuring Shiro Cosmetics!

Let me tell you how excited I was to receive these…VERY.

I’ve been on an adventure of makeup, specifically contouring the face, and when I started this journey it seemed pretty damn awesome. I LOVE contouring and really believe it can totally change your face. In fact, if I don’t do my whole face up, I always make sure to contour (except not always before bike rides–BUT sometimes I do, yea I’m that person, no shame!)…

Not soon after, I started breaking out. Cheek, chin, NECK, eyebrow, etcetera, it was everywhere and seemingly from no where. I have never broken out or had bad acne my entire life like this. It was awful. I thought it was face creams, so I really elimated all those creams, but still was somehow breaking out. So I did a good search “makeup making me break out”, and lo and behold, multiple articles came up about talc powder causing breakouts. Oh my goodness, it was totally the talc that was clogging my pores and I never knew until then.

I started scouring through my face contouring products AND eyeshadows because I use them as contours sometimes too — they work just the same. Some of which I LOVED and guess what, literally all of them contained talc. Cue sobbing face. Smashbox, Too Faced, Daiso, MAC (BIG crying face) all contained talc. I didn’t want to buy any Bare Minerals or those type products, I don’t know, I used those YEARS ago when they were first getting big and wasn’t impressed at all. Not to mention they didnt offer cool tones…which I will address in a minute here.

From there I took to Reddit, and asked the ladies of RandomActsofMakeup….which, let me add, is THE best makeup community on Reddit. There’s another bigger one, which I won’t name (you can figure out yourself) that I always found to be overly strict with insanely silly rules on posting photos or text, and just flat out childish. Think of that clique in high school that was the “You can’t sit here” one, that’s them. I digress…

I asked that RAOM subreddit which brands were talc free, someone suggested Shiro, an independent geekery company based out of Portland, Oregon. My research mode was green light go, google image searching their products, reviews, you name it. With my new journey, I also wanted a much cooler toned contour color which again, is pretty much impossible to find! Less orange/red tones are perfect for paler ladies, I am not even the palest as they come, but I’d rather look more natural than bronzy. That’s just me, and everyone has their preferences.

I caved, and on May 6th, 2015 I bought a 20 gram jar of “Burn The Heart Out Of You” for a contour, and 20 gram jar of “Curaga” for a highlighter–both only $8.00! I had to wait a month to have it shipped because just my luck, Shiro had just had a huge sale and was overwhelmed with huge orders to fulfill. I understood, and sat on my little hiney -patiently- waiting for my goodies. I asked them on Facebook when a near month rolled by when my order would be shipped out and got a reply super fast. Bonus points!

I got my goodies today, June 1st, 2015. I ran to my apartment to open my new pretties. Here come the photos!:

I was pleasantly surprised to see how BIG they were, but maybe it’s just a trick of the eye and you’re getting the same amount as any other…but then I looked and MAC only is 6 grams! Versus Shiro’s 20 grams, wow!
(Click image to see full size)

With flash, side view:

Curaga is so light, I really wouldn’t call it a blush, but its GORGEOUS. Super awesome highlight:

2 FREE samples with order, this was an awesome surprise.
Can I also add that Apparatus made me gasp when I first saw it, it’s SO PRETTY. It’s a very light iridescent purple, it looks grey in darker light, but it is still very etherial.
With flash: